


Hair of the Dog That Bit You

by archdemonblood



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus is angsty and confused, Anal Sex, Angst, Canon compliant (more or less), Gellert is angsty and confused, M/M, Not A Happy Ending, friends to lovers to enemies to lovers to lovenemies, it's that sort of fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 00:41:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11137833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archdemonblood/pseuds/archdemonblood
Summary: "Gellert should have turned and walked away. It had been ten years. Gellert was the fifth most wanted man in Europe and rising, and Albus was a schoolteacher. All promises were already broken. There was no going back."





	Hair of the Dog That Bit You

It was such a clear summer day, there was no mistaking the man who stood beside the river, looking out over the water as the sun set behind him. His red hair whipped around in the wind, and his glasses sat on the edge of his nose, drawing attention to his bright blue eyes. 

Gellert should have turned and walked away. It had been ten years. Gellert was the fifth most wanted man in Europe and rising, and Albus was a schoolteacher. All promises were already broken. There was no going back. 

Gellert strolled over casually and stood upwind, so he wouldn’t get a facefull of hair. He didn’t look at Albus at first. He just said, as casually as he could, “Erstes mal in Wien?”

Albus looked at him, and Gellert _felt_ Albus hold his breath. Gellert had transfigured his face enough that he wouldn’t be recognized, without losing his ability to blend in with the largely ethnically-German inhabitants of this neighborhood. It would get him by ordinary wizards with no trouble. Albus was no ordinary wizard, though, and Gellert was no ordinary wizard to Albus. Albus saw right through him, and Gellert was glad he did. 

“No,” Albus said, finally releasing his breath as he did so. 

Gellert raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“It’s my _third_ time in Vienna.” Albus turned away, and spoke quickly as he did so. “And I’ve been here a week already.” 

All promises were already broken. Gellert sighed. “I trust you’ve already been given a tour, then?” 

Albus nodded. “I have.”

“I’m sorry.” 

Albus looked back at Gellert, but where normally there was light and sparkle in those blue eyes, now Gellert saw only anger that had spent ten years in the ice box. “What for?”

Gellert drew in a slow breath. “For the promises I have broken,” he said carefully. “And for the part I played in destroying your family. I hope you know that I never wanted that.” 

“Neither did I,” Albus whispered. He looked away again and closed his eyes, steeling himself for a conversation he must have been planning for ten years. “I hope you understand that it doesn’t matter. Our intentions _never_ mattered.” 

The words ‘I disagree’ formed in Gellert’s mouth, but caught them with his tongue and swallowed them before they actually made it out. “... You don’t actually want to discuss this.” It wasn’t a question. Albus’ feelings were perfectly clear. 

Albus considered it for a moment. “I’ll never change my mind. Will you?” 

“I think it’s too late for me to change my mind.” He wanted to reach out and touch Albus, but he knew better. 

He and Albus had discussed Sacrifice. They had always known there would be sacrifices. They had mostly imagined that they would be other people’s sacrifices. They had been young and stupid. Standing here now, Gellert knew that he and Albus had paid as a high a price as their worst enemy ever would. For Albus, the price had been too high. For Gellert, it was affordable, but only just. 

Gellert told himself again, more firmly, not to touch Albus. 

“Then no,” Albus said. “Let’s not discuss it.” 

They stood there for a moment in complete silence. The wind and the water and the murmur of the vibrant city behind them faded into nothing, and for a moment, it was as if nothing existed except for them. “How can I help you?” Gellert asked, surprised by the desperation in his own voice. He wanted... Gellert could no more ask Albus to forgive him than Albus could ask Gellert to stop, but he wanted Albus to know that he was sorry. 

_I never meant to hurt you._

_I never meant to hurt **you**._

He wanted Albus to know. 

Albus didn’t speak. Gellert waited, and Albus stared at him with an unreadable look, until finally Gellert gave up, and turned away.

Albus caught his wrist. “I’m staying at the home of a friend and his wife. But they had to go out of town for the weekend because of a family emergency in Innsbruck. I...” He coughed, and blushed like a virgin even though Gellert knew he wasn’t one. It was strange, how easily a man so powerful and intelligent could be reduced to a blushing schoolboy. It was also arousing. If Gellert could fall in love with anyone, he was certain he would fall in love with Albus Dumbledore. 

If only.

“You’re alone tonight?” Gellert confirmed. 

“I am. And if you want to help me, you’ll join me in my bed for a few hours, and then you’ll never approach me again.” 

Gellert knew what Albus was asking. What was it they called it? “The hair of the dog that bit you”? Albus wanted Gellert out of his system. Gellert hated the thought of that, but he had offered, hadn’t he? He didn’t want to hurt Albus any more than he had. If Gellert could cauterize the wound he had created, didn’t he owe that to the man he almost loved? 

Gellert swallowed the lump in his throat. “That’s fair.” 

Albus led Gellert through busy streets and then through quiet ones, until finally, as the last bits of light vanished from the sky and Gellert felt tempted to pull out his wand and cast a _lumos_ spell, they arrived at a small blue house in the middle of a middle-class neighborhood. Albus unlocked the gate and then the front door with keys he pulled out of his pockets, and he led Gellert back to a small but neat guest bedroom. 

And then Albus stopped, turned around, and looked at Gellert with absolute surrender. His locked jaw said ‘trepidation’ but his eyes says ‘trust.’ Albus was keenly aware that he had a murdered in his bedroom, but he wasn’t afraid. 

Gellert grabbed Albus’ face and pulled him forward gently, until their lips met, and all the tension left Albus’ body. Gellert let the hand on Albus’ chin drift down to Albus’ neck, and he held Albus close as their mouths opened and Gellert began to taste Albus, giving Albus a taste of himself in the process. 

Albus wasn’t just allowing Gellert to lead, he _wanted_ Gellert to, and that thought was thrilling. When Gellert had had enough of Albus’ mouth, he broke the kiss, ignoring the disappointed look it won him from Albus, and moved for the clasps of Albus’ robes. They were shabby robes, but the clasps came undone easily, and for that, Gellert appreciated them. He pushed them off Albus’ shoulders and let Albus stand there for a moment in his pants and his shoes, and they looked each other in the eyes and paused one last time. 

“If you want me to stop--” 

“I don’t.” 

Albus sounded certain of that, so Gellert kicked off his own shoes and quickly cast off his own robes as Albus bent down are carefully untied _his_ shoes. Albus removed everything so carefully, and even laid the robes Gellert had pulled off him over a chair. 

It was getting dark, so Gellert waved his hand and released tiny balls of fire which wouldn’t hurt or burn anything but would hover above them and provide sufficient light. 

When they were both finished, Gellert was naked and Albus stood in nothing but his smallclothes. As tempting as it was to rip those right off and get to the real fun, Gellert knew that Albus would prefer something more tender, so walked over to Albus and pulled him in for another kiss. This time, while they kissed, he let his hand move lower, over Albus’ shoulder and down his side, all the way to his hips, and Gellert stuck his fingers beneath the waistband of Albus’ pants, and slowly began to push them down. 

Albus worked with him, leaning in, pressing their chests together and standing on his toes so that it was easier for Gellert to work the pants down, exposing Albus’ arse cheeks and balls. Then, he slid onto the bed and pulled Albus down with him, freeing Albus’ legs to move and facilitate Gellert pushing Albus’ pants down the rest of the way. Once they were low enough, Albus kicked them off his ankles, leaving Albus naked on top of Gellert. 

They broke the kiss, and stared at each other a moment. When they had done this a decade ago, Gellert had always been on top, but they were older now, and more experienced, and this was Albus’ game. 

Albus was feeling nostalgic. He leaned back on the bed and gave Gellert the space he needed to shift his position and get between Albus’ legs. Albus opened his legs eagerly, giving Gellert a perfect view and a strong sense of just how desperate Albus was to do this, and have it done. It wasn’t an arousing thought, but Gellert pushed it out of his mind as he quickly used magic to prepare Albus for his cock. 

Albus _had_ been with other men. That was obvious as Gellert pushed in with little resistance. Gellert wondered if Albus’ hole was always this hungry for cock, or if it was just his own that elicited such enthusiasm, but he didn’t dare ask. Once he was settled all the way in, he began to thrust, hitting Albus at just the right angle to make Albus’ cock jump to life. 

“ _Merlin_!” Albus hissed, clutching at the sheets in ecstasy. Gellert was not exactly out of practice himself. It was surprising--and slightly alarming--just how many beds being a wanted killer got him invited into. 

Albus was different, though. Albus wasn’t a one-night stand whose name he wouldn’t be able to remember in a week. Albus was _repulsed_ by Gellert’s crimes, but he’d invited Gellert back here anyway, because Albus saw something in Gellert that none of the others saw. Albus, and only Albus in the entire world, saw Gellert for everything he was, and he loved the good without for a moment romanticizing the bad. 

And Gellert was going to lose him. He was, right at that very moment, with every thrust of his cock inside Albus’ writhing body, enabling Albus to start a new, post-Gellert life. That was the price that Gellert had to pay For the Greater Good. 

It wasn’t until Gellert felt his own climax approaching that he began to use his hands to play with Albus’ cock, feelings its thickness in his hands and admiring its girth when it was fully erect. Gellert loved women as much as the next man--unless the next man was Albus, in which case he was quite certain he loved them more--but he had been with enough men to know how to time this. He wanted his hand covered in Albus’ come right as Albus’ arse filled with Gellert’s cum. 

Albus’ entire body twitched, and right as that twitch sent Gellert over the edge, Albus’ seed filled Gellert’s hands and dripped down to Albus’ stomach, falling into the trail of red hair that led to Albus’ cock and staining the bedsheets. 

Gellert held eye contact with Albus while he licked Albus’ cum off his hands with long swipes of his tongue. 

When that was done, he collapsed onto the bed next to Albus, sated and exhausted and waiting for the worst. 

Albus yawned, and for some reason Gellert expected that to herald the end. Instead, Albus reached up, removed his glasses, and placed them on the bedside table. 

For a long time, they laid there, side by side in the dim light of the candles. Gellert began to suspect that Albus had fallen asleep. Had he cleaned himself? Gellert smiled at the thought that Albus might have fallen asleep full of Gellert’s cum, and Gellert might be leaking out of Albus for days. It made the end of their relationship--whatever it was--feel somehow slower, and more gentle. 

Gellert looked at Albus, breathing so steadily and peacefully, and he knew that leaving Albus alone was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do. Albus had made his choice, and Gellert had made his, and Gellert wanted Albus to think as well of him as he could. 

That was a selfish desire, though. Gellert Grindelwald had done nothing in his life to deserve Albus Dumbledore’s good opinion, or even his affection, no matter how much Albus resented that Gellert had it. Here, in the darkness, it seemed only right to confess his sins and let Albus forget him. “I’m a liar,” Gellert whispered, staring the whole time at Albus’ closed eyelids. “And a thief. And a murderer...”

“And a visionary.” Albus spoke just as softly as Gellert, and he didn’t open his eyes. “And funny, and talented, and brilliant...” Suddenly, Albus’ eyes fluttered open, and Gellert could see their brilliant blue even in the darkness, staring right back at him. “I understand, Gellert. I hate it, but I understand.”

“I’m sor--” 

“Don’t. Don’t say you’re sorry when you’re never going to change.” Albus closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then opened them again. “Gellert, I will never love another man the way that I love you... And that makes me feel sick to my stomach.”

Gellert sat up. He’d never been thrown out of someone’s bed before, but he knew that Albus wanted him to go. Gellert had done as Albus had asked, and it hadn’t worked. Gellert wasn’t out of Albus’ system, and perhaps he never would be. It was one price Albus would have to pay for Gellert’s sins. There was no apology sufficient. Gellert sighed. “As well it should.”

Gellert scanned the room in the darkness, trying to recall where he’d thrown his pants. He thought he spotted them over by the bookshelf, but before he got out of the bed completely, he paused, and looked back at Albus. “I’m not...” Still, he whispered, though there was no reason not to speak clearly. He wondered how he could put this gently, to make Albus see that it was his fault, not Albus’. “I _can’t_ \--” 

“I know.” Albus closed his eyes again and nuzzled his pillow. “I think I always knew. I can’t hold that against you.”

“I wish--”

“No you don’t. Or if you do, not badly enough.” 

Gellert nodded. He knew better than to kiss Albus, in that moment, but he kissed two of the fingers on his clean hand, and he pressed them to Albus’ lips. “I will always treasure your love.” He noted, with a surprising sense of relief, that Albus didn’t pull away from his touch. “Even if I can’t reciprocate. You understand me. You see the good in me when even _I_ doubt that it’s there... I’m sorry I’ve only brought out the worst in you.” 

Albus said nothing, though Gellert knew he was still awake, listening. When Gellert climbed out of bed, Albus stretched out, taking up as much of the space that Gellert had vacated as he possibly could. It was as clear a sign as Gellert could have asked for that Albus was not open to Gellert returning to that bed on that night. 

Gellert found his clothes, and showed himself out without saying goodbye.


End file.
